Be Flexible

It’s happened to us all. You’ve been working out, following the same routine for weeks, maybe even months now. You’ve worked hard to get where you are now, following your workout plan to the letter, but it’s been getting harder and harder, the same routine week in and week out. Finally one day you wake up and just can’t find the motivation to lace up your shoes, let alone face another hum-drum workout.  What happened? You used to enjoy doing this, but somewhere along the way it became a chore. While unwavering dedication to a strict workout regimen is commendable, changing things up every once in a while is good, if not necessary, for your body as well as your mind. Just because you are scheduled for a long run today doesn’t mean that you can’t do sprints instead. Likewise, if an upper body resistance workout is what’s on the agenda, nothing says you can’t work your legs or your core if they’re well rested or even do something a little more unstructured. Maybe you just feel like going for a bike ride, or perhaps a swim seems like it might be fun.  Are the kids playing in the backyard? Feel like joining them for a game of tag instead? Go for it. We all know that we are supposed to listen to our bodies, but we need be cognizant of where we are mentally as well. If there is something else you feel like you would be able to put more effort towards or enjoy more, do that instead; it’s better than just going through the motions of your planned workout or worse yet, not doing anything at all. When the day comes that you don’t feel like you can handle your workout, yet you make the choice to do something else that is active, you have succeeded. Unless you are a dedicated athlete or training for a specific sport or event, having a little flexibility in your routine will help make fitness a part of your life and not just something you are trying to fit into your life.  And that is what embracing the fit life is all about.

Time

Time. If there is one thing that we seem to never have enough of, it is this. Not having enough time is often used as grounds for not being able to do a given activity or attend a certain event.  We even let this reasoning keep us from spending what time we do have with those we care most about. And as far as fitness goes, that gets pushed aside as well. But is it true? Do we really not have enough time in our “busy” days to make room for our well-being? We don’t wake up every day in such a crazed hurry that we decide not to shower or bathe. And we almost always make time to eat at least one meal each day. If someone told us that they had just been too busy over the last week that they simply didn’t have time to brush their teeth we would think them crazy. We carefully carve time out of each day to devote to these tasks without even thinking about it. So why is taking care of the insides of our bodies so different?

Our health is the most important thing that we have. We don’t have time NOT to devote to it. And if you think you truly do not have the time, I want you to pay close attention to how you are spending each minute today. Do you have 30 minutes to an hour where you are just sitting there on the couch, maybe staring through the television or playing on the computer or your phone? There is time right there, time that you could use to take care of not only your body, but your mind as well. Maybe you are insanely busy and you don’t have that big of a time block available. Do you have ten minutes here and there throughout your day? Find a few of those times and use them. It all adds up. I suspect that you will discover that you do indeed have time to make fitness a part of your life, and I sincerely hope you use it for such. It will definitely be time well spent.